xp_logs | Fires From The Ashes

Angelo's team finds themselves facing alternate counterparts

It was utter chaos. People were screaming, no one seemed to know what was going on, and on top of that, as if through magic, alternate versions of themselves had appeared. The alternates stood in a line, almost shoulder to shoulder, with a blank, hostile look in their faces. No one moved, but the hatred was palatable. It was clear that no discussions were going to be had.

Jessica marveled at the chaos that surrounded her. She felt as though it was sinking into her bones and the feeling was made even more distressing by the group of blank eyed figures standing across from them. Jessica ran them over with a critical eye and a vague feeling of recognition welled up within her. Her eyes stopped dead on a young woman with bright, long purple hair and purple eyes. She was dressed in a white bodysuit straight out of the eighties, one that appeared to defy the forces of gravity to stay over her rather large endowment. Jessica blanched as further realization set in.

"Ummm, we'd better be on some fucking good acid or some shit right now, otherwise there's a fucking alternate universe version of me who took fashion lessons from the eighties. Plus, she must be rich as fuck. There's no way those are real. I feel a strange need to cry and beat the ever loving shit out of her all at once. It's odd." Jessica blurted, crossing her arms over her "moderately endowed but still physically attractive thank you very much" bust.

"No, but seriously, what the flying fuck?" Cecilia stared at the version of herself standing next to the Jennifer Beals imprint of Jessica. She wasn't sure what was stranger: The fact that a doppelganger had just appeared in front of her, or the other Cecilia's wild-and-crazy '80s Halloween costume outfit. The hip boots. The weird gold lining around the cleavage that matched gold elbow-length gloves. The skintight green minidress. Whatever was in front of her was way off from subscribing to Vogue.

And it was pissed. Without thinking too much about it, Cecilia threw her forcefield up. "Get close, kids."

Unsurprisingly, her alter ego did the same.

Angelo was eyeing his own counterpart with something between disdain and horror.

"...there's a world where I dress like that?"

Hope took in her own counterpart as she moved closer Cecilia... decked out in black leather, ripped fishnet stockings, green and purple hair and safety pins... so many safety pins... "How in the world did she managed to get that through her nose?" She muttered as she tore her eyes away and took in the others.

"Yeah, okay, so, not to be absurdly practical." Cecilia glanced toward her friends, "but, you know. They're not standing there to welcome us to the neighborhood." The other Cecilia appeared to be snarling as she engaged in a similar discussion with the other versions of them. Hand gestures were being made. "So, uh, what now? Plan?"

As if they heard her, the five interlopers from the 80s broke ranks and started moving toward them.

Eyes narrowing at the vaguely familiar (in the most creepy kind of way) redhead in the most impractical battle ever, Rachel tilted her head at Cecilia, gaze distinctively blank as she shrugged and said as blandly as anyone could: "Take them out?"

She gathered a forcefield outside of Cecilia's, crowding force against force as she upped the charge and readied it to fly. The green eyes of her counterpart narrowed as the nylon clad wonder started copying her with narrowed eyes.

TK blast met TK blast, the impact ringing out loud around them and destroying everything within a ten foot radius around both groups. There was a moment of stark silence, then not-Rachel let out a delighted squeal and clapped her hands as she jumped up and down in apparent joy.

Now that was beyond creepy.

"Screw this", Angelo declared aloud, almost a snarl, put his head down, and launched himself at his counterpart.

Jessica watched as Angelo charged and she immediately followed his lead. She willed herself to rise, the wind whistling through her thick ponytail. Her counterpart mirrored her movements, and Jessica practically shivered with sweet satisfaction at the prospect of taking out some of her own self-hatred on someone who was, in effect, her. Her own brown eyes took in her counterpart's obviously faux purple ones. She noticed that they were glazed over, as though her counterpart were only half there. Jessica's stomach did a strange loop and she suddenly felt sick. It was the same look she'd had when Killgrave...Jessica shook her head, clearing it of those bad memories. Heat flashed down her spine and she rocketed forward, adrenaline rushing through her veins as she charged. Her vision was practically red and her tongue metallic. Tears of frustration slid down her face as she slugged her counterpart across her invulnerable face, snapping her head to the side.

Basic defense training or not, Cecilia was not terribly good in a fight. She knew that, even as the other her, this Cecilia-by-way-of-Tina-Turner approached in a calculating, circular motion with a menacing expression across her face. The costumed nemesis seemed to be searching despite the fact that both of their shields were up. At the very least, Cecilia figured their force fields might lock, and then they'd end up in an awkward exchange of kickboxing moves until one of them tricked the other and took the advantage. She adopted as close to a fighting stance as she could visualize.

And then, just as suddenly, cleavage-Cecilia dropped her defense. The translucent shell disappeared, and she'd broken toward Cecilia with a run.

"Huh." That was unexpected, and Cecilia figured maybe it was meant to catch her off-guard. So she held her position, trying to stay focused and preparing to slide tackle her incoming foe and get out ahead. When her '80s twin's arm reached out, she started to duck under it.

Two things happened in quick succession. A malicious look of glee spread across her double's features in epiphany, and the golden hue of building psioplasma pooled as the punch traveled. The duck saved Cecilia from the initial impact but did little to stop the scythe that grew like a spike and clawed against her forcefield.

Cecilia cried out on the impact, flinching as the initial pressure gave way to a sharp pain.

The other Cecilia laughed maniacally in a low, smokey alto and pushed harder in retaliation. The shape of her forcefield undulated around her as if in taunt, and she leaned in close to brush her cheek against Cecilia's bio-field. "I was once like you, chica: quiet doctora, all defense, and no home. Primum non nocere.." She laughed again.

Narrowing her eyes at her punk counterpart as she ghosted out, Hope hesitated for a moment then did the same. She had no idea what to do exactly, but she could at least keep her occupied... That thought in mind, she floated up and simply divebombed her counterpart, shifting to the astral plane at the same time...

There was half a moment of displacement and vertigo before Rachel blinked and found herself in the middle of the astral plane. It was a familiar sensation -- it was practically her first home, in fact, albeit she was not used to seeing Hope and Hope and her annoying counterpart in what she was coming to think of as her own personal head space (pun intended).

But this she could do. With a feeling that could only be described as smug, she reached out with considerable powers and converged them onto Punk!Hope and weird-as-fuck!Rachel, smothering them under the weight of her psionic force.

Hope stayed back, eying the situation closely. She had not desire to be caught by the psionic force... Yet her eyes narrowed and a glance back confirmed it. Her own tether, connecting her to her own body, shone with a pearly glow. But if she looked at Punk!Hope's tether, it was dim, almost not quite there and some kind of electricity crackled past it. Perhaps... if she could stretch it... or further damage it...

Stretch it... that was it... Hope fluently rose in the air, calling out: "Catch me if you can!" Calling out minor taunts, she hovered above the force Rachel was projecting, until her counterpart pushed herself and followed her. Hope immediately dove to the side, returning to the real world as she did so. Peeking over her shoulder, she saw her alt following her and immediately let the wave crest in her mind again, shifting her back to the astral plane.

Again she shifted back to the real world and back to the astral plane, as they swooped and dove. Back on the astral plane she paused. This was something she could not keep doing, she was not used to the swift shifts. And neither was her counterpart it seemed. Now not only the tether was glimmering with electricity, but also the rest of her astral form. In fact, it seemed to be increasing as suddenly the astral form faded in a bright glow, her form having fully having dis stabilized.
Jessica's eyes narrowed from her position on the ground. She was currently attempting to hold her counterpart in a choke hold, but was having difficulties. Her attention was drawn away from her current predicament as the alternate version of the young girl, Hope, if Jessica remembered right, vanished. The moment was fleeting, but just enough for Alt!Jessica to get the advantage and throw the real Jessica over her shoulder and onto the ground.

"Fuck!" Jessica cried as her counterpart threw her fist forward. Before it could connect, however, the other woman's entire body began to grow fuzzy and insubstantial. There seemed to be a strange ripple around her and, in mere moments, the other Jessica faded away. The remaining Jessica breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank fuck that's over. If God is real, the man's fucked up, I'll tell you that much." She stated plainly as she got to her feet.

"Multiple universes, multiple gods, and I've met a few of them", Angelo tossed out from where he was throttling his own counterpart until he, too, disappeared.

Cecilia could feel her clone's forcefield scratching, piercing against her own. The pain was sharp, and it shocked her. She hadn't known this was possible - that she could inflict damage like this. "I was never like you," she finally said, her voice strained as she tried to fight through the pain. She focused her strength on her fist, making an effort to punch her doppelganger's cheek away so they could be separated.

No dice.

"How long can you even hold this for? Let me tell you a secret," and she winked, "Offense is refreshingly easy." Her shield bubbled up around the two of them, stretching to envelop both Cecilias.

Cecilia tried to keep from crying out. The initial pain had been stabbing, and it had been local. Like a scalpel had been sliding against her skin. (There was a thought - it suddenly occurred to her that other-Cecilia had the medical know-how to eviscerate her.) But now, she felt as if she were being crushed or smothered. How was she - well not, she, but this other she, the underdressed she - this powerful? And how was she - actually her this time - not?

She concentrated on expanding her field against the pressure. "Bitch," she rasped out. Something had to be said, and it was all she could really manage.

"Oh please," and the maniac tittering of the other Cecilia's tone was suddenly clinical, "Do you even use your shield? It is marvelous. Adaptable. It breathes." As if to accentuate this point, the back layer of the steadily constraining enclosure grew six inch spikes. "But it is still tied to our body. A little well applied pressure in the correct soft tissue and nerve clusters..." She tapped a pattern on Cecilia's shield with her long, acrylic nails.

Seconds later, Cecilia was shrieking with pain. Spikes drove into sensitive nerves, as the alternate her employed surgical precision in ways Cecilia had never imagined. Her own shield finally gave way, and it wasn't long before she fell to her knees, still wailing.

"Oh," the green alternate pouted, "I believe you need a doctor." She stepped back, her field adjusting effortlessly, and cracked her knuckles. The pressure on Cecilia increased dramatically, causing the other woman to go white, as the woman's shield contracted completely and lifted Cecilia, encased, off the floor. There was a pop as her finer bones started to crack under the pressure. The double's expression was alight with triumph, "For my next demonstration, let us examine the human skele--"

And then she vanished, sending a howling Cecilia back to the ground.

Hope and Rachel re-appeared in the physical world a moment later (only they knew what had gone on in the Astral Plane), dropping hard onto Angelo as the redhead kicked off and launched a blast at the slowly materialising form of her alternate self -- not quite giving her a chance to reappear before Hope sent her back onto the Astral Plane. Rachel managed a small triumphant sound and traded high-fives with the other girl, but couldn't muster enough for a smile as she quietly hid herself against Angelo's side.

The fighting had died down for the most part, but the battlefield was bloody. Rachel always hated the aftermath more than the actual battles themselves.

Jessica's eyes trailed over the battlefield. She was an investigator by trade and taking stock of situations was her game. Her brown orbs passed over a lone figure nearby and she quickly kicked off from the ground, moving through the air in order to investigate. She landed about a foot from the figure and her stomach began to do gymnastics when she realized that it was Dr. Reyes.

"Dr. Reyes? Are you alright?" She asked, kneeling down to further investigate the other woman. Her face appeared to be clenched in pain, and Jessica's demeanor quickly changed. Whereas before there was fear and caution, she had now steeled herself. "Don't worry Doctor, we'll get you to, well, a doctor." She stated as she reached down, careful not to hurt the doctor further. She lifted her gently, careful to watch her face for any signs of pain. She knew that sometimes it wasn't the best idea to pick someone up that was hurt, but the good doctor didn't appear to be put into any further distress by the motion.

"Angelo! Dr. Reyes is hurt!" She yelled as she launched herself upwards, careful not to jostle the woman in her arms too much. "I'm getting her somewhere safe, stat!" She called before she took off, hoping that she could make it time.